So I am going to Van Halen tonight and thought I had a VH shirt and I did, but not one you would think of. The shirt I found and that I am wearing was part of an event I hosted 28 years ago tomorrow (2/29/84) and it still fits lol.

Spankys was a new wave rock punk dance club out in Stony Brook, that I spun at, that was also a disco called Shadows on other nights. It was also the location of the rock club The Mad Hatter.  

With the release of 1984 Van Halen blew up and the video for “Jump” was a big deal so we threw a party tying into Leap Year.  Good times!

February 29^th, a day we only get to celebrate once every four years.  When you think about a soundtrack to a day called Leap Day, probably the first song that comes to mind is Van Halen’s “Jump.”  Well it turns out that on Leap Day in 1984, “Jump” was the number one song.  It’s one of many tunes that have made Van Halen incredibly influential, but does singer David Lee Roth think they are the most influential American band ever?  He let us know…

“Musically?  No.  That’s an arguable scenario.  There are a lot and lot of bands who have contributed.  Perhaps in terms of stagecraft, we tied right in with the video generation and created a template that spawned a whole lot of bastard children that right up to this day, you can see some of the roots reaching this far.”